My Reason
by Kuroneko99
Summary: L is starting off his career as a detective at the age of sixteen, living in San Fransisco where he works on cases for the police. One day he meets a girl who insists on trying to figure him out. OC
1. Chapter 1

**Hahahaha, well it's me again and guess what? I have another story. Yes, I am the worst person in the writing world because I start a story, mean to get around to updating and finishing it, but then get struck with a new idea and thus take forever to update my other stories. For this I apologize. Well, I'm trying my hand at and L/OC fic so let me know how I did since I've never done this before. I couldn't come up with a creative chapter title at all. I have no idea how long this story will be so it'll be whoever knows how long before I update again. In the meantime, read some of my other stories to pass the time while I update to appease the angry fans. I don't own Death Note. As always, please read, review, and enjoy.**

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><p><strong>The Letter L is Brought to You by…<strong>

A man stood outside of the bleak orphanage that seemed to be bleeding into the white landscape around it, the color of stone being seeped out into the snow. The bell tower struck ten, tolling long and low, almost like a chant that rose from the church services on Sundays. Everything surrounding the building seemed locked away in another time, a much older time. It was as if the tall iron gates created an impenetrable barrier around it, keeping all the secrets it held inside sealed away along with the past of its inhabitants.

Today would be the last day that the man would step foot in the orphanage again; the last time he would see the place that he had called home for almost ten years. His one bag lay on the ground at his side, collecting snow on its battered brown material.

_Goodbye Wammy's house, _the fifteen-year-old thought shivering against the cold, blinking as strands of his black hair fell into his eyes.

"Are you ready to go, L?" the graying man beside him asked as he stood beside a sleek car, its engine purring softly like a content cat. Flecks of white stained its perfect body only to melt from the heat of the engine radiating off it.

"Yes, Watari, I am," L replied, turning his heavy black eyes on the old man then let them shift over to the surrounding landscape. With his wore tennis shoes crunching in the settled layer of snow under his feet, L, hunched over in his usual sullen posture, he made his way over to Watari and climbed into the warm car. He remained silent, listening to the sounds of the car as Watari pulled away from the orphanage.

The world rushed by in a blur of colors, but L stared at his hands, his nails bitten to stubs as he sat crouched in the seat, hunched over like an old man. After having examined the cuticles of his fingernails thoroughly his black eyes went to the window, his tired expression staring back at him. Everything he was seeing was going to change. So he would be on a plane heading to America, going to San Francisco to help out with an unsolved murder investigation. The idea of such an odd puzzle such as the "Jack Ripper Again" case, as they called it, intrigued him a bit.

Unable to stand his feet being confined in his tight shoes, L kicked them off, letting them fall to the carpeted floor like fallen dominoes. With his feet now freed, they hung over the car seat like hooked feet of a bird as L rested his hands on his knees pulled under his chin.

L sat with his thumb between his teeth, vaguely listening to the faint sound of opera that filled the car as it sped towards the airport.

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><p>It had been a year since L had arrived in San Francisco and he had settled in, blending into the background while remaining a prominent part of the city. Only no one knew it except a select few. He had adjusted living in the city where the streets angled at 45 degrees, where the fog covered the buildings like thick cotton, and where the golden bridge seemed to glow in the morning sun thatpeered over the horizon. The city was in all peculiar, like he was; they seemed to get along fine.<p>

On this one particular day, a day bathed in cool fog like usual, L found himself in a small library smashed in the middle of a diner and a antiques store that was perched along one of the steepest streets in San Francisco. Watari was taking care of business with the police force that they were in league with for a murder case and L wouldn't be joining him until later in the day. As usual the library was deserted except for a few people who milled about while the rest of the population hadn't even had their coffee yet.

L sat hunched over in a secluded corner of the library, pouring over books of various kinds that were arranged on the table with such neatness that it was almost OCD. He flipped the pages with two nimble fingers holding the corners, flipping the thin paper wings of the book as if it was something that would fall apart. His eyes streaked with black bags scanned over the words, absorbing them into his mind quickly. Sitting next to his chair, like small guardians, were his worn tennis shoes. The library smelled of paper and a faint hint of mildew; a smell that came with old buildings. The few people that walked by gawked at him with his weird posture and baggy clothes that made him look more like a peculiar homeless person than a sixteen-year-old. L was unaware of them and continued on with his reading.

He suddenly glanced up as the chair opposite to him was dragged out from under the table by a thin hand. L glanced up a bit, following the arm attached to the hand to the face of the hand's owner. A pair of soft hazel eyes looked back at him with a mixture of amusement and sincere friendliness, long brown curls fell around the oval face of the woman who had approached him.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked, her voice low and smooth like wind chimes being nudged in the breeze.

"Go right a head, though I don't see why you'd want to," L replied politely, more with a mumbled than a clear sentence, but the woman seemed to have understood him. She gave a smile and slid into the seat, L watching her for a moment out of passing curiosity. Normally people didn't approach him for reasons that he didn't know so this was the first time that someone other than police had talked to him.

"So…you really seem to have a passion for reading," the woman commented, her eyes landing on the books in front of L. He paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. Having a conversation with a regular person was somewhat foreign to him since the only people he had talked to recently were Watari and detectives and they weren't exactly normal.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"You've got all these books out in front of you," the woman pointed out as she gestured to the books.

"Well this could just be that I'm working on an assignment for school and I could have no love for reading what so ever," L suggested without missing a beat.

"True, but if it was an essay you must have one every week because you've been coming here without fail for a whole year."

"You've been watching me?" he questioned, raising a surprised eyebrow. L knew that people often watched him, but no one had watched him for _that _long. "That sounds rather stalkerish, don't you think?" Those dark rimmed eyes of his stared at her with glazed suspicion.

"Stalking you?" Her eyes widened. "No, I'm just observant with things like this. Besides, when you work at a library that only get's crowded on testing days, you tend to focus in on the most peculiar thing that you can find. In this case that would be you."

"I'm…peculiar?" the teenager mumbled, staring off in thought. The comment didn't particularly offend him since he already knew that fact about himself, but hearing someone else tell him made it sound a bit…hurtful.

"Yup, but in a good kind of way," the woman smiled.

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow…" L's toes tripped over each other as they were hooked over the edge of the chair.

"Well, everything gets boring after awhile if everything and everyone is normal. When someone like you comes around, sitting like you do and having that peculiar air about you, it spices things up."

"Spices things up…?" L tested the phrase as if he was chewing on an unknown piece of food, testing to see if he liked it.

"Yup, it's a figure of speech," she explained.

"I'm aware of what it is," L informed her.

"Ok, I just wasn't sure. You seemed to be looking a bit confused."

"I was just thinking on what you said. This is my thinking face."

"You must do a lot of thinking because whenever I see you, you always look like that." With slender fingers, the woman brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I believe that it's necessary to always think for if we don't think we'll cease to be human," L told her, suddenly forgetting his reading for the moment. "We'll be like animals."

"Wow, that was really philosophical. But what about the people who think but end up acting like animals? No, animals have a thinking process, but it's governed by something else." the woman asked him, her eyes swimming with thought.

"Are you referring to murders?" he asked.

"Murders, psychopaths, terrorists, criminals, etc. They have thoughts like the rest of us, think things out, but still end up acting like monsters in the world's eyes. If they think enough to plan out their actions then what's the difference between us and them?"

"Perhaps the fact that they think that what they're doing is right. Every person is governed by reason that determines in their mind what they should do, what is right or wrong, safe or harmful. Unsatisfied with the world's reason, they go out and carry out their own reasoning. Their own reasoning is what justifies their actions; that becomes their idea of justice," L said, feeling the cogs of his brain slowly turning, the worlds of his massive knowledge bank beginning to trickle out like a stream that would turn into a waterfall once he picked up speed. That's what happened when someone threw a question at him that was in his range. He'd start saying everything about the subject that he knew, overwhelming the other person until they had drowned under his knowledge without him knowing.

"Justice…" the woman mused, sucking on the word as if it were candy. "That's one of the trickiest words there is."

"How so?"

"Well, it's like you said. People will believe what they want to believe and, if their beliefs don't match up with the world's belief, they'll take their reasoning and belief and mold that into their own idea of what is right or wrong. People form their own sense of justice from their beliefs," the woman said, her brown eyes focused with seriousness that resembled L's own eyes. Then she blinked, eliminating all traces of her concentrating look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you with my rambling about justice and stuff. I'm sure a kid like you finds it boring." She gave a small laugh.

"I'm not a kid. I'm sixteen," L huffed lightly.

"Well according to law that's still considered juvenile."

"You look about the same age as I do so should you really be talking?"

"I'm eighteen; I'm legally an adult," the woman smiled brightly.

"You're only two years older than I am so that hardly qualifies you as an adult."

"Say what you want but at the end of the day, I can leave home legally and you can't."

_Leave home? I pretty much go wherever I want anyway. How did we even get on this subject? _L thought, staring at the woman with disinterest, suddenly finding her a tad bit annoying.

"Hey! Natalia! Get back to work! You aren't paid to make small talk with people," a loud voice suddenly came, cutting through the silence of the library like a gunshot. Several people turned to the girl behind the book counter as she stared in L's direction.

"Looks like I've been found," Natalia sighed as she stood up from the table. L realized that she had been wearing a black apron like the rest of the librarians. "I'll talk to you later." She flashed him a small before she disappeared around the shelves filled to the brim with dusty books. "You really shouldn't yell in a library, Ally. Haven't you heard that silence is golden?" L heard her say.

"Yeah, and duck tape is silver and that's what I need you to help me find," Ally retorted and the girl's voices faded into silence.

"What a weird girl…" L sighed as he continued with his reading, thinking that he and Natalia would never cross paths again.

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><p>It didn't turn out that way. The next day, as if she had a radar built into her, Natalia found L crouched in his seat in the back corner of the library. He was focused again at what was laid out in front of him. This time it was thick files snuggled into manila folders rather than books. L was so absorbed with the files that he didn't notice that Natalia had taken her seat across from him until he suddenly looked over the top of the piece of paper he held delicately behind his fingers.<p>

They stared at each other for a moment, each with different expressions written on their faces. Natalia wore a bemused smile on her lips, her eyes shining; L hung a blank look on his face, his hooded eyes half-closed.

"Yes? May I help you, Ms. Librarian?" he asked.

"I was just watching you. This time you've got what look like to be important files of some sort," Natalia replied, her head in her hands as she propped her elbows on the table.

"You do realize that when a person says 'I'm watching you' it usually isn't taken well. Are you stalking me?" L said as he set down the form down carefully.

"You've asked me this before. I'm not stalking you."

"It feels like you're stalking me," L sighed.

"Well I'm not!" she protested.

"If you were I might have to report it to the police since stalking is a crime," he informed her matter-of-factly.

"I'm not stalking you. Scout's honor," Natalia assured him as she held up three fingers together.

"You're not a boy scout," L told her.

"So? It's still honor whether you be a man or a woman." Natalia let her hand drop onto the table.

"You're a strange woman…" His eyes dropped back to his papers.

"So did you finish your essay?" Natalia asked him suddenly, brushing aside his strange woman comment.

"Pardon?" L lifted his heavy eyes back to Natalia, trying to follow her

"You said you were doing all that reading because you had an essay. What are you doing now?" Natalia went on.

"Again you ask me questions about my life. I don't even know you, yet you pester me incisively," L told her, hoping she'd pick up on the slight annoyance in his voice that lingered like oil on water. "I don't know your name even."

"We know each other; we met yesterday. I'm sure you heard my name from the other girl shouting at me yesterday," Natalia said, her eyes on his pale face.

"She wasn't exactly quiet," L mused.

"Got that right. I never cease to wonder why she works in a library, which is the epitome of silence. Well, my name's Natalia. Natalia Blake," the librarian introduced herself.

"Pleasure to meet you…" L replied. Natalia stared at him, as if waiting for something. "Yes?" he asked reading her anticipating look.

"This is the part of the conversation where you say your name," Natalia said.

"…I am L," he told her.

Natalia raised an eyebrow questioningly. "L?"

"Yes."

"As in the L that comes after K and before M?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"It's just L?" Natalia inquired.

"Yes, just L," L answered, switching into the questioning mode that he used often when conduction investigations.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Are you positive?"

"Why would I not be sure of my own name?" L asked her, growing tired of the pointless questions.

"Dunno, it's a possibility," Natalia said, her face concentrating with thought. "Are you sure the L doesn't stand for something? L by itself sounds like a code name or an alias."

L paused, knowing that she had guessed it on the nose. He was never supposed to reveal his real name; it had been what he had been taught at Wammy's. The name L shielded him from those who wanted to harm him because of what he did; it was the main thing that kept him hidden. "It's just L."

"I don't believe you," Natalia sighed, leaning foreword on the table.

"I'm not lying to you, I have no need to." It wasn't a complete lie; there was no such thing as a complete lie. He had learned that behind every truth there was a lie and every lie a truth. It all depended on how much information you let slip.

"Louis!" she suddenly said, catching him off guard.

"Excuse me?" Now it was his turn to raise his eyebrows with question.

"That's what L stands for!" Natalia exclaimed, looking at him, waiting for him to cave and give his real name.

"No…L just stands for L," L told her, straightening out his hunched frame a bit.

"It can't. You're parents didn't name you L. They couldn't have."

"What if my parents didn't name me that?" L's toes fiddled together like nervous fingers.

"You named yourself?" She tilted her head to the side curiously.

"That's one way of putting it…" There was no way that he could say that L was the name given to the greatest minds at Whammy's house.

"I swear on…" Natalia looked around and slammed her hand down on the closed file in front of L, "_this _folder that I _will _find out your real name!" she proclaimed loudly that heads turned, giving her disapproving stares. L shifted in the chair a bit, his back pressed against the chair in an attempt to put more distance between himself and the spontaneous librarian.

"I suggest that you give on such a ludicrous oath," he told her, staring at her with his black eyes. "There are thousands of names that begin with the letter L in the world and you won't have enough time to go through them all. Besides, like I told you, my name is L. Just L. Nothing more."

"I will find out your real name! I won't stop until I do!"

"Natalia!" came a booming voice that ripped through the quiet like a gunshot. "This is a library! What part of being quiet do you not get? What part of working don't you get either?" Natalia stiffened, her face going white as she heard the familiar footsteps of Ally coming towards them.

"Like you're one to talk," she muttered and quickly jumped out of her chair, making a beeline for the opposite bookshelf to hide. She suddenly stopped, did a U-turn and marched back to L. "I gotta run, but if you want to meet up afterwards meet me here." Natalia pulled out a pencil and scribbled down a name on the manila folder's blank cover. "I'll treat you to something nice." With that she disappeared in a flash of brown hair as Ally stormed into the corner where L sat, perplexed.

"She's gone?" Ally groaned, her hands balling into angry fists, her voice still raised. "Did you…" she turned to L then trailed off uncertainly as she took in his dingy, homeless looking appearance. "Never mind…" Ally muttered and walked off, her blue eyes scouring for traces of Natalia.

Once she had left, the thick silence of the library settled down again, like a blanket being dropped over the place. L let out a sigh, chewing on the tip of this thumb as he turned back to his work. But no matter how hard he tried to focus on his files, he couldn't stop thinking about how weird Natalia Blake had been, and her loud-mouthed friend. Her determined oath to figure out his name bothered him a bit; no one had taken such an interest in his name before.

"What a strange woman…" he mumbled to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, I finally got another chapter done. This is a major accomplishment for me during the summer when laziness takes over. I still need to update my other stories so that's also the reason why it'll take awhile for new chapters to come out. So sorry for the inconvenience. As always, please read, review, and enjoy. (I don't own DN) **

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><p><strong>Coffee Ice Cream and Possible Names<strong>

L held the manila folder between his thumb and forefinger, having already dropped off the folder's contents at the police station. Without the thick stack of papers to give it weight, the husk of the folder swayed in the wind looking, anorexic and emaciated as he walked down the street. Natalia's penmanship was etched on the front like a tattoo, staring him in the face.

"_Bayfog Café,_" he muttered, scanning the different colored buildings all squashed together. "The name suits the place." Fog rolled off the San Fransisco Bay and seeped through the houses, coating the streets with a thin veil. People on the sidewalk cast him lingering looks as they passed, taking in his dingy hunched appearance that only seemed to look more out of place out in public. L was vaguely aware of the stares, more focused on finding this café that Natalia had told him to go to. _Why am I even going to this place? I have no need to do what this girl asks me to do since I have no affiliation with her. Judging by the address she happened to write on this very important case file, it's not that close by_, he gave a sigh as he walked up the steep inclined street.

The sharp angle of the street forced his legs to work harder. L hated feeling the beads of sweat gathering along his neck, just under the collar of his jacket. Working out was fine, but walking was something he tended to avoid. Walking for long periods of time and walking up steep inclines was now on the top of his list of things he disliked.

_Why didn't I just have Watari drive me? There's no point in complaining about it now. I'm almost there anyway…_L glanced up as a blue building appeared through the fog. The store front was lined with windows, showing off the retro interior inside. Blue faux leather booths sat against the windows, lights from the hanging lamps pooling on the white laminated tabletops. A few people mingled about, some sipping coffee while others chatted with customers beside them. The café looked inviting enough, but L couldn't spot Natalia.

"She said to come…but where is she…?" he muttered to himself as he opened the door, greeted by the jangling of the bell above the door. His heavy eyes scanned the booths, but didn't spot her as he slipped into a booth to wait. "Maybe she forgot and now I'm going to look like an idiot sitting here waiting for a girl who will never show up," L went on as he kicked off his shoes, pulling his feet up onto the seat of the booth. The warm kept his exposed toes warm as he twiddled them in thought. "Should I just order something or should I just leave? Well I already took off my shoes so I guess I should order something. I walked all the way hear so it would be in my best interest to order something…" L bit the edge of the nail of his thumb, feeling the semi hard material bend under his teeth.

"Would you like to order something?" a waitress asked him.

"Coffee…" he replied without looking up from the empty space of air he was intently staring at.

"You know, normally the rule here is 'No shoes; no service,' but for you I'll make an exception," the waitress went on. L looked up, recognizing Natalia. Her curly brown hair was pushed back off her face with a red hairband. With her hair pulled back Natalia's round eyes looked even bigger.

"And here I thought you just were making me walk all the way here for no reason," L muttered, still biting his lip.

"Why would I do that?" Natalia asked, her face looking confused.

"I'm not sure…"

"Well, I can assure you that this café is topnotch so your trip here will be worth while." A smile formed across her face as her poured black coffee into a white mug. Tendrils of steam wafted up from the mug and curled around Natalia's face.

"Do you mean to tell me that the coffee is made from rare beans or something? Or perhaps it's infused with rare spices?" L asked as he watched the mug as it was set down in front of him.

"No, nothing like that," she said with a chuckle, brushing a stray curl back over her ear. "I'll be back with some sugar."

L's dark eyes slid over to the window, squinting against the bright light reflecting off the fog. People moved like specters through the silvery veil, disappearing and reappearing randomly. It was a tad bit interesting to watch to different people pass by, along with the occasional gleam of golden headlights that came before cars followed. Seeing each person go by made him wonder what secrets they were hiding; to him each person was like a walking puzzle full of unique ways that they all ticked. Yet, for such complex creatures most of them never bothered to figure out the way things in the world worked, to try and figure out the deeps mysteries ingrained in every inch of the world.

To leave mysteries unsolved was something L couldn't stand; he worked until each mystery he came across was solved. This brought up the problem that most mysteries were solved too quickly for them to be entertaining to him, but in his line of work the quicker the mystery was solved the quicker the case was closed. Mysteries were solved before he could truly savor the complexity they held and then he was left with nothing else to solve.

"Here you go!" Natalia's voice cut through his thoughts, returning to his side as she brought over a dish of sugar cubes. The white crystalized cubes were piled randomly onto of each other.

L turned his heavy gaze back to the cheerful girl as she slid into the booth across from him, laying her arms on the tabletop. "Why are you sitting down?" L asked her. Carefully he began picking up sugar cubes, stacking three together before setting them into his coffee. The hot liquid burned his fingers but he didn't wince as the sugar cubes broke the dark surface of the coffee. "Don't you have work?"

"I'm on break right now. Besides, not many people show up around this time," she told him, watching curiously as he kept stacking sugar cubes on top of each other.

"Are you trying to say that business is low here?" L translated, eyes trained on the white cubes balanced precariously on top of one another. "So much for a really great café."

"No, just at this time of the day. Mornings and late afternoons is when business is booming. Don't be rude and say this restaurant isn't good." A frown set on her face as L put the final sugar cube on his tower. Ten sugar cubes teetered in the coffee cup, shifting slightly as the bottom cube dissolved and lost its form. "You want some coffee with that sugar?"

"Pardon?" L looked up at her, expression unchanging.

"Nothing, it's just that you put a lot of sugar in your coffee. You might as well just each the sugar cubes."

"I don't like bitter things."

"So I've noticed. You've got the biggest sweet tooth I've ever seen."

"I'll take that as a compliment," L muttered as he watched his tower of sugar slowly slip into the depths of the black coffee. Low chatter from the other customer's rose up around them and hovered in the air like the fog outside. He looked up as he reached for a spoon, meeting the curious brown eyes of the woman as she watched him. Her eyes were intense as they stared at him as if trying to take in everything they could of his face. "Why are you staring at me like that?" His eyes narrowed at bit at the placid smile that hung on her face as she looked at him intently.

"You're really an interesting person, you know that?" she said without a change in her expression. Her head rested in her hand, slightly titled as she gazed at him. The look on her face caught L off guard. No one had ever looked at him with eyes that were intrigued in him.

"Well you're just a strange person. I don't get you at all. You stalk me at the library and now you drag me here to this café and won't leave me alone," L told her, stirring the granules of sugar at the bottom of his coffee.

"I didn't drag you here," Natalia informed him. "I just told you that it'd be worth your while to come here and you showed up on your own."

"I bet it was so that you'd get extra business. How sneaky of you, using me to get a higher paycheck."

"That's not it at all. I just wanted you to relax a little after working so hard on your essay at the library."

"That's another strange thing about you. Yesterday and the day before you were working at the library yet now you're working here. Did you get fired from the library because you stalked the other people there?" L finished stirring and held the spoon over the mug.

"I still work there. And I also work here," she told him.

"Two jobs? You must be a workaholic."

"What can I say? I just love working," Natalia replied putting her hands up in a casual shrug.

"Really? Now that's really weird. No one loves working that much to have two jobs. I think it's just because you want to be in all the places that I am. Now I'm convinced that you're nothing but a stalker. Do you think that just because you're an adult now that you can do creepy things like follow teenagers around?"

"What they heck are you going off about?" Natalia asked him, her eyebrows meshing together. "I think you might have had a little too much sugar. You're starting to speak nonsense."

"Am I?" L challenged and took a sip of coffee. "And for your information I haven't touched my coffee until now. So tell me why you seem to be everywhere I am."

"Can't we just say it's a coincidence?"

"I don't believe in coincidences."

"You don't say. I guess I can tell you, that is, if you do something for me," Natalia said looking over at L with a coy smile. L stared back at her over the rim of the cup, trying to decipher what the smile meant.

"Nothing perverted I hope," he muttered.

"Why would even think something like that? Kids these days, learning all sorts of naughty words," Natalia said with a sigh, twirling a stray curl between her fingers. "No, it's nothing bad. I want you to give me a piece of information."

"Information? Like what? What do I know that you would possibly want to know as well?"

"Your name," she told him point blank.

"Excuse me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your name. I want to know your name."

"Why would you want to know my name?"

"Don't friends know each others names?"

"Who said we were friends? We only met two days ago and barely talked. That hardly makes us friends," L told her curtly, still sipping on his coffee. Irritation crept onto his nerves. Only two things irritated him in the world: sugar deprivation and losing. Now, Natalia Blake was slowly making her way onto the list. He considered just getting up and leaving, but then he'd have to deal with an angry owner accusing him of dining and dashing.

"Well you know my name so it's only fair that you tell me yours!" Natalia insisted wither her eyes shining intently.

"You went and told my your name all on your own. I don't owe you anything."

"Aw please! I just want to know! Why won't you tell me?" Natalia begged, looking like she was going to lunge across the table and grab his shoulders.

"Because it's none of your business," L muttered, scraping up the clumps of sugary sludge that hadn't dissolved in the bottom of the cup.

"Please? If you don't tell me then I won't tell you my reasons for having two jobs!"

"That's not much of a threat. I don't really care whether you tell me or not," he said with disinterest.

"You're lying," Natalia replied with a wide grin. L looked up at her, caught off guard by her statement.

"What do you mean I'm lying?" he inquired.

"You're like me. You're very curious about everything even if you don't let on. You can't stand it when you can't figure out the answer to something. More than that, you hate losing, am I right?"

"Just who are you?" L asked, knowing that she had hit the mark.

"Just a very observant person." The smile glowed on her face, almost blinding L. "Ah, hold on a moment. I'm going to go get you something, Larry." Natalia quickly hopped up and swiftly moved behind the font counter.

"My name's not Larry!" L told her as she ducked down out of sight. "She's not making me eat something else just so she can get a better tip, is she? I don't have a lot of money on me…" L sighed heavily, feeling exhausted with his talk with Natalia. He normally didn't get tired from talking since it was part of his job, but something about conversing with Natalia drained all his energy away.

"Here ya go!" Natalia exclaimed as she suddenly return with a bowl of brown ice cream.

"What's this?" L asked turning his eyes back to table.

"Ice cream. What does it look like?" Natalia told him placing her hand on her hip.

"I mean what's it for?" L clarified.

"It's coffee ice cream," Natalia informed him.

"Coffee ice cream?"

"Yeah. It's my own creation. I make it every morning before the café opens. The owner liked it and decided to put it on the menu. It's pretty popular," Natalia beamed looking very proud of herself.

"Ok, but why would you assume that I would want some?" L went on, still not touching the ice cream.

"Because you looked like you could use the caffeine."

"Wasn't the coffee enough?"

"I figured you could use some more. Besides, this is sweeter so you don't need to add so much sugar."

"Am I going to have to pay for all this?"

"Nah, not this time. I'll cover you this time, but next time you'll need to pay for your own food.

"I still think you're pushing me into buying all this…" L muttered, but took a spoonful of the ice cream anyway. The cold desert melted smoothly on his tongue, filling his mouth with the taste of sweet coffee.

"So? So? How is it?" Natalia pestered him, leaning close to watch him eat. She watched him intently, so intently that it was beginning to make the teen uncomfortable.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't stand so close or watch me like that," L told her and scooted away from Natalia. "It's good."

"Yes! Score one! I finally found something you like, Leroy," Natalia cheered, making several heads turn in her direction.

"Hey, Natalia, why don't you get back to work instead of disturbing my customers?" a burly chef from the kitchen called, poking his head out through the pickup window.

"Will do, boss!" she replied cheerfully. L stared at her blankly, feeling a sense of déjà vufrom the library yesterday.

"I think you got fired from your job at the library because you spend too much time wasting time…" L said quietly under his breath and kept eating. "And my name isn't Leroy either."

"Darn. I thought that one would work. No matter, I will figure out your real name some day," Natalia proclaimed again and gave him another smile before she walked away to take the order of a couple of customers who just walked in.

"She's so weird…" L mumbled to himself. "She makes a good ice cream though…"


End file.
